An Elite Warrior
by ccross023
Summary: Prince Damon was the first child of the Queen and King of Illea. He's finally nineteen and now it's his turn for the Selection. The problem? He's already in love. He arranges for his love to be entered in the Selection but he could never anticipate how the Selection could change him or his opinions. He felt so certain before the game started but now... Full summary inside.
1. Chapter 1

**This is the sequel to An Elite Fighter, please check out that story first if you haven't already because otherwise this story probably won't make much sense.**

**SUMMARY:**

**Prince Damon was the first child of the Queen and King of Illea. He's finally eighteen and now it's his turn for the Selection. The problem? He's already in love. He arranges for his love to be entered in the Selection but he could never anticipate how the Selection could change him or his opinions. He felt so certain before the game started but when the competition finally begins, Damon will have to make a choice, and it just may not be the one he expected to make...**

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The quiet clicking of shoes against marble filled the empty hallway. It was the same thing that would echo through the palace halls daily–maids scurrying to clean and guards patrolling in search of rebels. These were the sounds that I grew up with, sounds that had comforted me since childhood. Today, however, these soothing sounds could not calm me. I was nervous as hell for this.

My father had called for me to come to his office–something that only happened when he was upset with me.

Now, don't get me wrong, I was decent for a teenaged boy but sometimes something would slip and it would let others know about something that they shouldn't. It rarely happened now that I was older, but I was called to his office frequently as I child because I couldn't keep my mouth shut.

_What if he found out about Grace?_ I stopped the thought before it could form. There was no way my father knew about her, no possible way. I always made sure that we were careful not to get caught. I'd even gone so far as to meet her outside of the palace walls once because I thought that the maids would see too much in a hallway.

Slowly, I took in a breath and adjusted my suit to erase any wrinkles that may have formed. I seriously hoped that this conversation wouldn't be too bad.

I knocked on the wooden door in front of me before I dared to enter–I did not need to see my parents in a lip-lock again like I had the one time that I didn't knock.

I waited a few seconds and then let myself in. I shut the door quickly and sat in one of the chairs in front of the desk before I risked glancing up, letting out a small sigh of relief when I realized that my dad was the only one in the room.

"You wanted to see me?" I asked.

My dad smiled and looked up from the paperwork that he had piled in front of him. "Yes, we have a few important things to discuss."

I waited patiently for him to begin but was startled when the door behind me opened. I turned slightly in my chair and smiled as my mom sat down beside me. I leaned over and kissed her cheek quickly and she rolled her eyes but I caught the slight curve in her lips that told me she liked it.

"So, what's so important that both of you had to be here to talk to me?" I asked curiously. It was rare for my parents to do this sort of thing in privacy because we would usually just discuss things over dinner so that the whole family would know.

They both grinned at me. "Damon," my mother began, "your birthday was yesterday. You are officially eighteen years old."

I shrugged. "Yeah, what about it?"

Dad chuckled and shook his head at me. "It means, son, that it's your turn for the Selection."

I froze in my seat. Oh shit.

Mom must have noticed me tense up because she cocked and eyebrow at me, demanding an explanation with her firm and unwavering gaze. She knew something was wrong.

I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. I didn't exactly know how to discuss this sort of thing with my parents. They'd probably be upset because I'd kept it from them for so long.

"Who's the girl?" Mom asked calmly.

I sighed. That damn woman was infuriating. She could always tell exactly what the problem was–even if I hadn't said or done anything.

"Grace." I whispered just loud enough for them to hear.

Grace was my girlfriend and the love of my life. I remembered the day that we met with perfect clarity.

I had been working in the infirmary because my mom had insisted that I get some first-aid training in case of an emergency. I had been restocking cabinets with supplies when Grace and her father had been carried in. They had been working with some new horses, training them so that they could replace all of the horses that had grown too old to ride. While rising one of the horses, Grace's father had been bucked off and landed head-first onto the ground.

He had died due to his injuries as soon as he'd been carried through the infirmary doors.

However, Grave had live.

She had been trying to drag her father's body away when the horse had bucked again, kicking her in the chest and breaking several of her ribs. It was a miracle that one of them hadn't punctured her lungs.

Thankfully, a maid nearby had seen Grace and her father and had managed to get help.

When Grace was carried in, the doctors needed an extra hand and I was the only one there. I'd helped them wrap up her torso after they'd reset the bones and I'd even given her the shot of pain medication afterward.

I stayed with her that night, making sure that he vitals remained steady and strong.

She woke up in the middle of the night and looked panicked, trying to pull the IV out of her arm and struggling in her bed sheets.

I'd stopped her, of course. We talked for a while as I explained what happened and forced her to relax and lie down in bed so that she didn't strain herself. When the time came and she asked about her father, I'd told her the news. She'd cried for well over three hours and I held her in my arms and let her wet my shirt.

After that night, we started to see more and more of each other.

Soon enough, we'd both confessed our feelings and the rest was history. We'd been dating for about a year now.

I explained our story to my parents and Dad sighed when I finished. He rubbed the back of his neck and then looked directly into my eyes.

"Are you one hundred percent certain about this girl?"

I nodded firmly without hesitation. "Yes…I love her."

My mom looked toward my dad and they silently stared at each other for a while. They did that a lot and it seemed as if they could communicate with each other silently. It was both amazing and creepy.

Finally, my dad turned back to me and nodded. "Okay. I'll see to it that Grace is put into the Selection."

I grinned at them.

"However," my mom continued, "you will at least attempt to date the other girls in the Selection. I don't want you to send every girl hoe on the first day."

"But–"

"No, Damon. I know that you love Grace but she might not be the one for you. At least give the other girls a chance before you disregard them all. You might just find yourself falling for someone else."

My gut tightened at the thought of giving up Grace. I loved her, she was my girlfriend. I wanted to marry her and have kids, I wanted to get old with her and ramble on to our grandchildren about some of the crazy things that we had done. I wanted her to be my wife.

I didn't want to betray Grace and if I dated the other women in the Selection then I would be betraying her in the worst way. The mere thought of dating other woman made me feel sick to my stomach. I loved Grace, I didn't want anyone else.

"If you don't try to date the other girls, I will not put Grace into the Selection, Damon. It's your choice." Dad said with narrowed eyes.

I sighed, realizing that I wouldn't be able to change my parent's decision any time soon. "Okay, fine. How long do you want the Selection to last if my feelings don't change?"

_Which they won't,_ I told myself firmly.

Dad thought for a moment. "Two months should be a decent amount of time. After that, I'll allow you to make your decision."

Okay, two months wasn't that bad. I could do this…two months and then I'd have forever with Grace.

"Thank you. Is there anything else we need to talk about?" I asked, ready to go so that I could explain things to my girlfriend.

Dad shook his head.

I stood to leave but my mom stopped me briefly. "Damon, when the time comes please make sure that you choose your wife out of love. The advisors will probably try to sway your opinion but you'll have to ignore them and listen to your heart. You don't want a wife that you'll hate but that everyone else loves."

I smiled and kissed her cheek again. "Yes ma'am."

Once again, she rolled her eyes at me.

I smirked at her because it was just something that she did all the time. She might not act like she liked it but I knew that she really did like it when I was affectionate with her.

"The drawing will be in two weeks. Make sure you're presentable by then."

I grinned at my dad, saluted mockingly, and strode out of the room with my head held high.

Now, I just had to explain everything to Grace and my siblings.

Great. I'd be lucky if my siblings didn't kill me with their excitement–they'd all been looking forward to my Selection for years after all. Grace though…hopefully she'd allow me to keep my arm attached to my body.

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**Hey there again guys! It's great to be back. This note holds important information about the story so PLEASE read this...**

**Ok, I'll we be posting this story MUCH slower than I did the last one. I'll be lucky if I can do a chapter a month, real life has just been kicking me in the butt lately so please be patient.**

**Also, this story will start out much slower than An Elite Fighter did but I promise that the wait will be worth it. I plan on delving much deeper into the stories behind some of the characters and give better background information.**

**This story is not beta'ed so all mistakes are mine. I type this story on my phone so I apologize for any grammatical errors which will probably happen rather frequently.**

**Thank you to everyone who created a character for this story! I have not ignored you, I promise! I'm just rarely online so I usually don't have time to respond to anyone's messages or reviews! I REALLY appreciate you guys taking the time to contribute to this story! It really means a lot to me, so thank you. I will acknowledge every user who submitted a character and will add the character's name next to the acknowledgment in the author's note. Thank you again!**

**I look forward to writing about this crazy adventure, so I hope you enjoy reading it.**

**Thank you to anyone who reviews, follows, or favorites my stories. You guys are my motivation to write, I cannot even express my gratitude for all of your kind words.**

**I look forward to seeing what you guys think so please review. I appreciate constructive critism so please feel free to review or message me about anything that you think that could be improved (aside from any grammatical errors, I try to fix them but it simply isn't possible for me to catch every grammatical/spelling mistake that I make.**

**Anyway, thank you again and happy reading everyone!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, I made one slight mistake in the last chapter. Damon is in fact nineteen years old; sorry for the error last chapter. Also, Damon is the son of America and Maxon in case any of you were confused about that. Thank you to all of you who have followed, favorited, and/or reviewed this story! I appreciate all of you, you give me the motivation to write this story and I hope you end up enjoying it. Now, on to Chapter 2…**

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"What do you mean you 'actually have to date other girls'?" Grace whined even as she clung to my arms with her head buried in my shoulder.

I sighed, her working clothes gently scraping my fingers as I rubbed up and down her back. "My parents insisted that I at least try to date the other girls in the Selection."

Grace grumbled unhappily and began to pull away from me. I wasn't going to have that though and pulled her back to me, securing my arms around her tiny frame so that she couldn't escape my grasp.

"Look, babe," I sighed once more, "I love you, okay? I'm not going to be interested in those other girls but I have to at least pretend for my mother's sake." I pulled away just slightly and tipped her chin upward so that she would look at me. "I love _you_, no one else. You need to trust me with this, Grace. I don't like doing this either but if it's the only way that we can be together, I'll do it."

She sighed and relaxed into my arms again, hugging me firmly as I clung to her just as tightly. "I don't like it, Damon. I hate that I'll have to share you with thirty four other women but at the same time, I understand."

"Two months, babe. Two months and then you'll never have to share me again, I promise."

She began to rise up on her toes and I leaned down to meet her. Our lips touched and she sighed, allowing me instant access inside of her mouth. She was soft and pliant in my arms and I moved forward until she hit the wall. I tasted her mouth as she wrapped her arms around my neck and began tugging my hair. I'd probably like it if she didn't pull so damn hard but I was used to it and I knew that she liked it so I didn't stop her. Besides, kissing her made up for the slight pain in my scalp.

When she broke away with a gasp, I moved lower and began to suck gently on her neck, careful not to leave any marks on her no matter how desperately I wanted to. It turned me on beyond belief just to think of marking her in some way, of letting the world know that she was mine, and mine only. The saltiness of her skin spread along my tongue with each lick and bite and her mewls turned into soft moans of pleasure.

A beep caused me to pull away from her succulent flesh with a sigh. I hated that damn watch that she wore. More so, I hated how we were always on a schedule. I couldn't wait for the day where we had all the time in the world to be with one another, maybe just sit and talk rather than hurriedly touch when we had a few minutes alone and occasionally whisper in passing in the halls.

She blushed and smiled apologetically as she pressed a button on the side of the screen. "I have to go."

I gave her one last soft, chaste kiss and then stepped back. "I'll see you later, Grace."

"Sure, sure." she replied softly and then scampered away so that she could get back to work.

I returned to my room as quickly as possible and sat at my desk, rubbing my hands down my face and I thought over the whole day. Everything was just so messed up and confusing right now. My life had literally turned around complete just because my age had changed.

I pulled out some paperwork that my father had left me to complete and set to work balancing out budgets and giving my opinions on various other issues throughout the nation in writing. I was working on a paragraph that summarized everything I wanted done when my door was swung open with a loud bang.

I glanced over and shook my head as I saw all of my siblings piling themselves into my room. I turned back to the sheets of paper in front of me, pretending that I didn't mind their presence. I seriously wasn't looking forward to the barrage of questions that were sure to come soon.

After a few minutes of silence my baby sister, Aria, pushed my paperwork away from me and I chuckled when she tried to raise her brows at me. She'd learn to do the bitch brow that our mom had perfected one day but right now she just made herself look constipated and utterly adorable.

I pulled Aria into my lap and kissed her slightly chubby cheek, she was only six so I could get away with giving her some affection. I may sound biased, but my little sister was a perfect angel and I loved her the most out of all my siblings sometimes just because she could always make me smile no matter how shitty my day had been.

I remembered the day that she had been born fondly; I was the third person to hold her after she'd been born. It was insane how quickly I fell in love with her after I held her in my arms for the first time. She had been a good baby, too. Aria had hardly cried at night and when she did she only needed to be held for a few minutes before going back to sleep. I remember the time that my mom had woken after she'd heard Aria crying but I was already soothing her back to sleep and by the time my mom had entered the room, Aria was sleeping peacefully in my arms.

I was pulled from my memories as Aria giggled and started messing with my hair. I, in turn, began to stroke my fingers through her light brown hair, gently tugging out any snarls or knots. "Damon, you're getting a new friend?" she asked curiously.

I didn't answer right away and stalled as I quietly greeted my other siblings with a smile.

Elizabeth, or Liz as she preferred, was fifteen and already engaged to the Prince of Italy and they were set to be married a couple weeks after her sixteenth birthday–which was approaching far more quickly than I was prepared for. Liz and the prince had met at a business party in Italy and had hit it off so our parents had arranged for them to be together and thus far things seemed to be going pretty well between the two. Liz had grown up so far to look just like our mother did–yes, I'd compared her to some old photos and it was shocking sometimes to see all of the similarities. She was good at socializing and had managed to throw a huge party for the Germans, securing them as an ally by charming their pants off as well as managing to seal a deal with the British where we got more money for weapons than they were actually worth.

Liz's twin, James, was younger than her by a few minutes and was currently going through a growth spurt and–though he was still several inches shorter than I am–he had managed to catch up with Liz and was now about the same height as his twin. He had strawberry blond hair and bright brown eyes that made him look continuously innocent even though he was far from it for a boy his age. He liked to play pranks and mess around at parties, always making people laugh even if it was at his own expense.

Then there was my youngest little brother, Mason. He followed in our father in regards to his physical appearance with light brown hair and eyes and he was ten years old. He was rather quiet and preferred to spend time reading and composing music. Though Mom tried to make him play classical, he favored the guitar and always managed to play something during our parties–even if our parents didn't want him to. Mason had dark brown hair and blue eyes–similar to my own–and I loved him to bits and pieces because of his ability to empathize with almost anyone. He was pretty smart for his age and sometimes his words portrayed a wisdom that was seldom found in such a young boy.

Aria pulled at my hair a little to grab my attention again and I tickled her in retaliation. She giggled as I nodded to answer her question.

"Yes, Aria, I'm getting a new friend. But she's going to be special and I'm going to marry her when I meet her."

"Oh, like the story Mommy read to me…Cinderella?"

I chuckled but nodded. "Yes, exactly like Cinderella."

"Can I meet her?" she asked excitedly, her eyes lighting up in anticipation.

"Not yet, but as soon as I find her you can."

"She's missing?"

I chuckled and shook my head. "No, but I have to meet her and find her first. Remember how Cinderella ran away from the prince?" She nodded and I continued, "It's like that but I have to meet her first and then I have to make sure she doesn't run away from me like Cinderella ran away from the prince."

Seemingly satisfied with my answers, Aria relaxed into my lap and began messing with the pen that I had been writing with.

James sat down on the floor in front of me and raised a brow. "Cinderella, huh?"

I chuckled. "Yeah, I guess."

Liz rolled her eyes at her twin and leaned against the edge of my desk. "Seriously, Damon, how are you dealing with all of this? Are you nervous?"

I thought for a moment and then nodded. "A little. I mean, I am going to pick my wife out of only thirty five girls and what if I don't connect with any of them? What if none of them like me? Even if they do like me, what happens if I don't think that I can be happy with any of them?" I lied smoothly, I was really only antsy about having to wait so long for the Selection to end. I wanted to marry Grace as soon as possible but now I would be forced to wait for a few months and I wasn't happy about it. Hopefully my impatience would pass off as nerves.

Liz rolled her eyes in my direction, easily believing what I'd told her. "Seriously, Damon? Not all girls are snarling beasts with horns on top of their heads. I'm sure you'll be perfectly fine. All of those girls will love you and I have no doubt that you'll be able to find at least one girl who you'll be able to live with for the rest of your life. I mean, look at mom and dad, they're perfectly happy with how things turned out and they met through the Selection."

I ran a hand through my hair in frustration, it was true that our parents had met through the Selection but they'd never really told us much beyond that. Every time that I'd asked about their Selection, they'd always divert my attention or simply state that they'd tell me when I was older. I just assumed it was a boring story and didn't bother to ask about it too often since they both seemed so hesitant to tell me anything about it.

"So what did Mom and Dad talk to you about anyway?" James asked quietly.

"Just some stuff about the Selection, generally telling me that we'll start the competition soon and that I'd better be ready to settle down and make some serious decisions."

Mason looked at me from his position on the floor next to James. "When will the competition start?"

I shrugged. "I'm not sure yet. It'll probably be pretty soon but we didn't really discuss any of those aspects of the Selection."

"Are you excited that it's finally around the corner?" James asked curiously.

I smirked. "Yeah, a little. I'm excited to finally get a wife and I'm excited that I'll soon be running the country and taking care of our people the way that Dad expects me to but I'm also a little nervous about the whole process."

A guard knocked on the wall and I turned to face him since the door was still open. "Yes?" I asked.

"You are needed in the King's office for a meeting, Sir."

I sighed and kissed Aria's forehead before nodding to the guard. "I'll be down in a moment, thank you."

I picked Aria up and set her on the floor as the soldier left. I pushed my chair away and grabbed my coat and adjusted my tie. "All right, I'll talk to you guys a little bit more later. Unfortunately, I now have a meeting to attend. See you at dinner, hopefully."

With that, I left my siblings behind and began the walk to my father's office.

The Selection hadn't even begun yet and I was already exhausted. I had no idea how I would balance my schedule with how chaotic things had been lately.

The competition couldn't begin, or end, soon enough.

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**Okay, so the next few chapters are going to be mostly fillers, giving general background information about the story. I am currently working on writing the outline for Chapter 5 and the story should begin to pick up a little bit after that so please stick around! Thank you for reading everyone!**


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm really sorry that this chapter took so long to get out; life has just been crazy for me lately. Unfortunately, this chapter is a bit shorter than normal but we're almost to the Selection where the real story will finally begin. Thank you to everyone who continues to read and thank you all for being so patient with me, I'll try my best to get the next chapter out as soon as possible.**

**Once again, sorry for the grammatical errors, they are all my own though I've tried to correct any that I saw there will still be some in there...**

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_A few weeks later…_

Today was the day. I would finally see which girls would be entered in the Selection. I was nervous as hell.

It felt like it was only yesterday that my parents and I had discussed putting Grace into the Selection. My dad had guaranteed that Grace would be entered as a contestant but there was a small sliver of doubt in my mind. What if Grace was not actually drawn? What would happen if she was not put into the Selection?

What would happen if–

"Your Majesty?" a maid asked softly, pulling from my dubious thoughts. Her eyes were directed at the floor and she was shaking slightly, as though terrified to speak to me.

I gave her a small smile to ease her obvious nervousness, though she probably couldn't see it because she was still staring at the ground. "Yes?"

"It is time for the Report, Sir."

I nodded and thanked her before rushing to meet my parents–there could be no more what ifs, it was time.

I entered the room and kissed my mom's cheek before settling into my chair.

Gavril grinned at me and gave me a small thumbs-up for encouragement. I was going to miss the old man. Soon his son would be taking over his position so that Gavril could retire and spend the rest of his life in comfort next to his wife in their home.

I liked Gavril's son just fine, but I would miss Gavril a lot. He was a good friend of mine and had been in my life for a really long time; I was going to miss how he always comforted me before the Report and miss his friendship because over the years we had grown close.

The man behind the camera gave the signal and Gavril shot a genuine smile toward the camera, his charisma coming forth and making itself known with the confident joyfulness that he exerted.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of Illea." He started going over some formalities, getting the important news about our society out of the way before turning into the subject that everyone was surely eager to hear about. "We have a very special event today. Our gracious Prince Damon has finally come of age and now it is time to start the Selection so that we can find our future Queen of Illea and the future wife of the beloved Prince Damon who will soon be taking the crown from his father."

Gavril walked over to me. "How are you this evening, Prince Damon?"

I grinned at him and chuckled softly–he always did stuff like this to surprise me. "I'm excited Gavril."

"Hmm, anxious to see the lovely girls who will soon be in your life and trying to win your heart?"

I chuckled again but nodded in response to confirm his statement. "Yes, Gavril, I am. I'm excited to see all of the young ladies who I will have the pleasure of meeting very soon."

Gavril shot me a wink before moving on to my dad. "What about you, _Maxon_, what's going through your head right now?"

My dad chuckled and shook his head at Gavril while grabbing my mother's hand as she smirked in his direction. "I just hope that Prince Damon will be able to find a wife whom he loves. There is nothing else that I can hope for my son to have, I hope that he'll be able to find his soul mate just as I have found mine."

Gavril nodded and moved on to my mom. "Queen America, any advice that you'd like to pass on to any of the Selected tonight?"

"Honesty is the best policy, ladies. Be honest and remain true to yourself. Your life will be changing forever after tonight." my mom said with a small smile on the face while looking directly in the camera.

"Excellent advice, Your Majesty." Gavril returned to the front of the room and began to slowly list off the names of those who were in the Selection.

When I was very young, there had been a caste system in which each person was assigned a number based on their social status. However, my father had that system destroyed by the time I was two so I never had experienced a life with castes. My parents explained the system to me one evening and described how horrible it was for most of the population.

In my parent's Selection, there had been castes and they'd somehow found their way to each other though–from what I'd heard around the castle sometimes–the odds had been drastically stacked against them. In previous years, it had been customary for the castes of each of the Selected to be read. But since the castes were no longer set in place, my father and Gavril had decided that their form of employment would suffice.

I managed to smile at each of the girl's names that were read and control my face into a happy mask as each of their pictures was displayed. I noticed that there were a few government workers, one or two farmers, and a majority of unemployed girls who were too young to work yet.

Soon, all of the names and faces began to blur together and I became tense as Gavril quickly read through the list. My heart was beating uncontrollably fast when I realized that there was only one girl left and Grace's name had not yet been called. I managed to keep the smile on my face but I was sweating with nervousness.

Before I could begin to completely panic, Gavril looked directly into the camera and continued. "Grace Williams of Angeles. Maid."

I almost sagged into my chair as relief swept through my body and settled into my bones once her name was read. The rest of Gavril's speech was lost in the roar of my blood as my heart beat frantically in my chest. Thank God.

Grace would be in the Selection and in about two months she would be my wife, of that I was absolutely certain.

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**Next chapter: we meet the girls for breakfast. After that, the real fun can begin! Thank you again for reading!**

**Here's a sneak peak, since it'll probably be awhile before I actually post the next chapter (it still needs to be edited so please bear with me for the time being):**

_A few of them began to cry and I shifted uncomfortably on my feet. Many of them just seemed angry though and I could see the red slowly creeping up their necks and onto their faces to form furious blushes. I was slightly grateful for the angry ones–I could handle angry women, but I simply didn't have any clue about comforting a crying girl._

_I dismissed the cameras as quickly as possible and then turned back toward the girls. I was met with a solid fist to my face–or to my eye to be more exact._

_I stumbled but blocked the next punch before it could make contact. I pushed the girl who had hit me away gently and winced as I felt my face begin to throb..._

**Seems like a few of the girls will be a bit feisty. Until next time :)**


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